Five Days of Milan

The Five Days of Milan (18-22 March 1848) was a five-day rebellion launched by the citizens of the Italian city of Milan, Lombardy against Austrian rule at the start of the Italian Wars of Independence. The 13,000-strong Austrian garrison under Joseph Radetzky faced almost the entire city, whose residents raised barricades throughout the city, fired on the Austrian troops from windows and rooftops, rallied the support of the people with assistance from the Catholic clergy (who raised a bust of Pope Pius IX onto the barricades), and created a provisional government led by Carlo Cattaneo. Radetzky decided to withdraw his army before it was besieged, withdrawing to the "Quadrilateral" between the fortresses of Verona, Legnano, Mantua, and Peschiera del Garda, and Lombardy was temporarily freed from Austrian rule.